LESSON 1: Calibrating pasteur pipette

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, the students will be able to:

1. calibrate a pasteur pipette

2. explain the reason for pipette calibration

INTRODUCTION

A pipette is a laboratory tool commonly used to measure and deliver a certain volume of liquid. Pipettes
are available in various design, from sample glass pipette to more complex, adjustable automatic ones. This
instrument also do have differing levels of accuracy and precision. For this reason, calibrating pipette is
vital to have a good and reliable laboratory results. Pipette calibration allows for greater quality results and
saves money on reagents.

Pasteur pipette are uncalibrated and used to transfer liquids. For blood banking it is utilized to transfer
liquid to tranfer red cell samples.

C A L I B R A T I N G A P A S T E U R P I P E T T E

A. Materials

1. Pasteur pipette
2. Marking pen
3. Automatic pipettor
4. Wasserman test tubes

B. Procedure
1. Prepare and label four(4) control tared tubes which will contain 100 uL (0.1 mL) , 200
ul(0.2mL), 300 uL( (0.3mL), and 400 uL(0.4 mL) of washed packed red blood cells (red ink)
2. Dispense the sample in each of these tubes using an automatic pipettor(droper)
3. Prepare a second set labeled with similar volume capacity.
4. Using the Pasteur pipette, drop as much as washed packed red blood cells into the separate
Wasserman tubes until the desired volume of the control tube is reached.

NOTE: Use ONLY 1 Pasteur pipette in dropping the washed PRBC. Be sure that the pipette is in
good condition!

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LESSON 1: Calibrating pasteur pipette

C. Observation

Count the required number of drops of washed PRBC cells to fill an empty tube to level with a
previously tared tube with desired fixed volume of liquid. Record this. You can now use the same
Pasteur pipette in delivering the required volume of washed PRBC in the preparation of red cell
suspension.

Required number of drops of washed PRBC

to reach similar volume with the control

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LESSON 1: Calibrating pasteur pipette

Exercise 1

Laboratory Questions:
 What is the significance of calibrating a Pasteur pipette?
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2. List some errors that can be encountered while doing pipette calibration
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3. Post the pictures of your work

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LESSON 1: Calibrating pasteur pipette

References:

-Cardona, C.C, Martin , G.L, and Garcia- Meim, R. (2016) Laboratory Manual in Blood Banking
2nd Edition

-Whitlock, S. A., Immunohematology for Medical Laboratory Technicians 2010

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